Rebuilding shattered worlds : creating community by voicing the past / Andrea L. Smith and Anna Eisenstein.

"Rebuilding Shattered Worlds explores the ways a demolished neighborhood in Easton, Pennsylvania, still resonates in the imaginations of displaced residents. Drawing on six years of ethnographic research, the authors highlight the intersecting languages of blight, race, and place as elderly interlocutors attempt to make sense of the world they lost when urban renewal initiatives razed "Syrian Town"--a densely packed neighborhood of Lebanese American, Italian American, and African American residents. This ethnography of remembering shows how former residents engage collective memory-making through their shared place, language, and class position within the larger cityscape. Demonstrating the creative power of linguistic resources, material traces, and absent spaces, Rebuilding Shattered Worlds brings together insights from linguistic anthropology and material studies, foregrounding the role language plays in signaling "pastness.""-- Provided by publisher.

"An ethnography of the ways displaced residents remember the ethnic diversity of their neighborhood in a small city in eastern Pennsylvania destroyed in the name of urban renewal, where memories, linguistic patterns, and material artifacts continue to animate people's everyday lives"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-181) and index.